Triple H Called Out For Massive WWE Booking Mistake With AJ Styles

Triple H’s WWE booking is under fire yet again.

WWE Icon AJ Styles was seen confronting Gunther on the Raw episode after John Cena’s retirement match at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13th, 2025, where Gunther made The Champ tap out to his sleeperhold.

When Gunther was banished from the show by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce, he was on his way to his car when he faced off with Styles. The two have since been embroiled in a feud.

Many fans and critics, who knew AJ Styles would be retiring this year, speculated after his confrontation with The Ring General that Styles would be another wrestler to be retired by Gunther after John Cena and Bill Goldberg.

In the weeks that followed, the feud escalated when Styles slapped Gunther across the face to teach him some respect. This led to a match between the two the following week on Raw, which The Ring General won by faking a tap out to AJ’s Calf Crusher submission, leading Styles to release the move, thinking he’d won.

The referee never saw it, and Gunther proceeded to plant a low blow on Styles behind the referee’s back and followed it up with a powerbomb to secure the win.

Triple H’s Latest AJ Styles Booking Criticized

This past week on Raw, AJ Styles demanded a rematch with Gunther, pushing the fact that he, in fact, had Gunther beaten had it not been for the latter’s cheating.

Gunther accepted the rematch at the Royal Rumble on one condition: that The Phenomenal One would have to put his career on the line.

Speaking on Coach & Bro, former WWE booker Vince Russo criticized this booking idea by WWE CCO Triple H for being a lose-lose situation for WWE.

Russo has criticized Triple H’s booking multiple times in the past. He observed that with the way the match has been booked, if Styles loses, it would be too obvious, as everyone knew he was going to retire, rendering the match pointless as it’s already happened on Raw, but if they were to make Styles win, then he would be over, and Gunther’s retirement of John Cena would be completely undone.

We’ve already done this match. Your audience knows that AJ’s retiring. So, what? We know that. Now, if you’re catering to a casual audience who didn’t know that, that’s different. But the people you’re catering to know that. So, now you’ve put yourself in a bad situation because now you’ve got one or two choices. Either AJ retires, or AJ goes over and you totally whitewash everything they did with Gunther and John Cena; either way, it’s a non-win.

Also read: Triple H Names Unexpected Name As The Face Of WWE